Malignant pleural effusion and peritoneal carcinomatosis are frequent causes of effusion. Cytological evaluation (PAP-stained slides followed by immunocytochemistry, IHC, if applicable) is currently the gold standard for the diagnosis of malignant effusions, but its sensitivity varies between 40 and 80%, being a time-consuming technique. Although flow cytometry (FC) is not routinely used in the diagnosis or follow-up of nonhematopoietic neoplasms, it has the advantage of being rapidly applicable to fresh samples, potentially decreasing the time for the diagnosis. The main objective of this study was to assess the utility of FC as a confirmatory tool in the diagnosis of neoplastic effusions, based on the expression of EpCAM antibody in tumor cells versus the cytological evaluation. In this work 1,535 serous fluids were collected, of which 101 (68 pleural, 33 ascites) were selected through a screening algorithm and sent to the FC and cytological evaluation. Seventy-three of these samples (46 pleural, 27 ascites) were considered malignant as determined by clinical, cytological and radiological criteria. According to our data, 75% (55/73) of these samples were positive by Cytology/IHC and 74% (54/73) by FC. We noticed that, although the sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve were similar, the turnaround time was shorter when using FC. Moreover, these results clearly improved by combining both techniques. We conclude that FC provides information about malignant effusions faster than immunohistochemical staining, and we believe that performing both techniques in parallel would improve diagnostic performance.
Objective This study aims to assess the efficacy of hormone therapy in patients with severe gastrointestinal bleeding due to multiple angiodysplastic lesions. Patients and methods Between May 2010 and July 2017, we included 12 consecutive patients with anaemia or recurrent bleeding due to angiodysplasia who had been started on hormone therapy. The therapy given was a combination of levonorgestrel (between 0.10 and 0.25 mg) and ethinylestradiol (between 0.02 and 0.05 mg). We determined the mean number of transfusions required in the 6 months before and after the start of the treatment, as well as the mean haemoglobin levels, number of admissions for anaemia due to gastrointestinal bleeding and length of hospital stay in these periods. Results The mean age of patients included was 77.83 years old and 75% were male. The follow-up period after treatment initiation was 6 months. Of the 12 patients included, only one stopped the treatment owing to it not being effective. Overall, 83.3% of the patients reported subjective improvement. Furthermore, we found significant differences comparing before and after starting treatment regarding the mean number of transfusions (7±4.8 vs. 3.4±4.6; P=0.005), the mean haemoglobin levels (9.5±1.2 vs. 10.8±2.6; P=0.034) and the mean number of admissions (1.6±1.6 vs. 0.2±0.4; P=0.024). On the contrary, differences between pretreatment and post-treatment length of hospital stay were not significant. Conclusion Hormone therapy is a potentially useful therapeutic tool in patients with refractory bleeding and anaemia due to angiodysplasia.
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